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May 31, 2017

Prince Philip "Graduates" ~ Along with a few other notable people! Our Favorite Stories from May

All month issues surrounding both rulemaking and legislative issues were at the forefront of the real estate industry news cycle. We could hardly even glance at Instagram before we were drawn right back into the fray of policy and debate.

Below are the top stories this month our staff spent time discussing. Whether we wanted to or........ well, you decide.

The ARELLO Mid-Year Meetings went off without a hitch. We were in attendance speaking with regulators from around the world on issues ranging from approvals to policies. Many were focused on possible changes to the structure of the CFPB and tax reform issues. Also, look for coming changes in Washington's pre-license course outlines.

NAR holds Mid-Year... errr... Legislative Meetings in D.C.

Two years on and we still can't get the name of the Biannual Meeting correct. Oh well.

We posted the NAR 360 video before we saw the Internal News Service Special Report. We would have preferred that option first, and think you may as well. In the report, NAR discusses rule changes to MLS and IDX systems, as well as key issues surrounding UpStreamRE's new structure (and funding through 2018). Our takeaway was the same as the only comment on the article - should they change the name to DownStreamRE?

Ad Age magazine reported on the new bill sponsored by Rep. Marsha Blackburn called (ready for this?) Balancing the Rights of Web Surfers Equally and Responsibility Act of 2017. That's right.... it's the BROWSER Act. After voting to remove the privacy rules for ISPs, it appears that this representative may have heard from constituents who wanted some protections put back in place. Apparently, not without a catchy name for the Bill, which has not yet made it to a committee.

In his piece in The Hill David Reiss, Professor of Law at the Brooklyn Law School, writes on the Financial Choice Act and how it will gut the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This will, in his words, "return us to the Wild West days of the early 2000s". Hopefully, for Professor Reiss and the rest of us, legislators remember that history repeats itself before they make any changes that would allow predatory lending to again rise to the level of "commonplace".

One of our favorite things to do around here is announcing new programs, and this month was very cool! The Missouri Association of REALTORS® and VanEd are proud to announce that the Missouri GRI program will launch online on June 1st, 2017!

With the first wave of courses coming we will also be offering a 12-hour CE package that includes Core, Elective and Ethics renewal coursework. All of us are very excited about the new program and the launch. You can learn more online below or contact us here for more information.

We currently have 7 books we are looking at right now, but this month we revisited Mark Leader's book, Mark of a Leader. You can find his book online at LeadersChoice.com. Back in 2008, this book became popular and now we are looking back at some of the insights.

Prince Philip declares he will retire from royal public duties at the age of 96 (quitter) and now we know more about what his "graduation" to private life will look like. The Sun reported this month that Buckingham Palace said in a statement: “His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh has decided that he will no longer carry out public engagements from the autumn of this year. In taking this decision, The Duke has the full support of The Queen."

We were pleased to hear that since we're just not settled on if the Queen can still order the Duke's head to be removed or not. Learn more in this handy article from The Sun. (Yep - Royal Watch is always on over here)

And then, in what is becoming an almost annual event, we here at VanEd are proud to announce another high school graduation. Congrats go out to Katarina, daughter of Managing Partner, on her recent accomplishment and graduation this month. We look forward to all your coming endeavors, and we even saved all those words of wisdom for the celebrities!